Saturday, 19 November 2016

A Lisbeth
Schultz, “Maler” is mentioned in Dresslers Kunsthandbuch 1930 at Wiltrudenstraße 5 in Munich. Not
Lisbet, not Schulz. Not Elisabeth Sara (von) Schulz. Confusing, if one is
looking for an obscure printmaker, a graphic artist and a painter by that name not
knowing if it is one or two persons. I learned the use of Schulz,
Schultz, and Schulß are all “allowed” writing this family name in that period
(before 1940).

The Dresden
painter was the daughter of “Generalleutnant”
Richard Adolph von Schulz
(1849-1923) and Adelheid Elisabeth
Sahrer von Sahr (1855-?). She had two sisters: Marie Adelheid Schulz (1882-1948) and Margarethe Adolphine Schulz (1889-1959). Her father remaried
Armgard Margarethe von Veltheim (1870-1939).They are all interred in Dresden in a family grave.

She is also
known to have used the name Sarette von
Schulz (her friends used the call her “Sarettchen”)
after Sara or after her mothers maiden family name Sahrer von Sahr.

The painter
Elisabeth Sara (von) Schulz worked and lived in Dresden and had studied in “Karlsruhe Malerinnenschule” with Friedrich Fehr (1862-1927) and etcher Walter Conz (1872-1947), in Berlin with
Johann Walter Kurau (1869-1932) and Hans Nadler (1879-1958) in Dresden. Her
painting technique shows her great admiration for her Baltic teacher Kurau (who
is also known as Johann Valters) and
closely resembles his style and use paint and color.There is no mentioning of the painter ever having lived in Munich.

Above Walter Kurau, below Elisabeth von Schulz

There are
indications, master and student visiting the same location and perhaps even using the same nude model. Printmaker Eva Langkammer
(1884-1956) was an important representative of Kurau’s important school of painting,

Above Walter Kurau, middle Eva Langkammer, below Elisabeth von Schulz

She worked
as a nurse in WWI.In Dresden she met
and became friends with modernist artists Elisabeth
Ahnert (1885-1966), Albert Wigand
(1890-1978) and Dresden printmaker Ruth
Meier (1888-1965) and therefore also will have been acquainted with Dresden
painting school owner Martha Schrag (1870-1957).

She is also
graphically known by at least one etching showing Dresden and river Elbe,
signed “Sarah Schulz”. Another composition has an illegible signature (Sara Schulz ?) but also uses
a monogram (left, in a triangle) LS, which may be a clue to the suggestion
the painter and printmaker might be the same artist................. or not.

The
printmaker uses besides “Lisbet Schulz”
the monogram “LS” while the painter
used the initials E.S, EvS and SvS.

To complicate things further: Lisbet
Schulz, the printmaker, is mentioned in the archives of the “Letter Stiftung” in Cologne with dates
(28-10-1884 – "last mentioned 1958"), the dates belonging to the painter Elisabeth Sara von Schulz (below).

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Please send any comment, corrections, suggestions, any biographical or artistic information on, and more examples of prints and paintings by this artist for sharing.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Thursday, 17 November 2016

Last weekend I choose this etching (or did it choose me?) in a general collectors fair to travel home with me. I cannot help falling for prints like this. City view, rain, umbrellas, people rushing, works in progress and the electric tram. There's a lot going on here.

Thanks to Wolfgang in Frankfurt (dear Watson) who did not need much time, we know where the exact location is. It is scribbled hardly (no longer) legible lower left.

Kaiserstrasse, Ecke (corner) Adlersstrasse in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The smaller building is probably the remnants of medieval "Gasthaus zur Stadt Straßburg" seen from "Marktplatz".

Now for the maker: is there someone out there who has a suggestion or recognizes the signature ?

All pictures embiggen by mouse-click

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Thursday, 10 November 2016

A collective and ultimate attempt to solve the mystery of the identity of this printmaker with the help of readers and passers-by of my humble Blog.

Lisbet Schulz from Dresden ?The printmaker

In my ongoing research into the world of forgotten German women printmakers born in the 19th century I have discovered and revealed much, but there are still many identities to be cleared and many uncertainties to be solved. Recently I may have found a clue to who enigmatic printmaker Lisbet Schulz actually was (next posting).

One of the most intriguing "only known by a name and a monogram" printmakers in my files and archive is Lisbet Schulz. Prints by her surface mostly in Germany but sometimes also in the Netherlands. But never a clue or a hint who she was, not an address not a birthday or a place of origin. And although much (almost all of Dresden with all its inhabitants living in the centre) was destroyed by allied bombing (considered by many an allied war crime) this printmaker is far to good to be so "unknown". Because of the nature of multipliable art, many copies were spread outside Dresden before hell brook loose over one of Germany's most beautiful cities. To this moment however there's little to no trace of her identity. A faith that overcame also many (almost all), Jewish printmakers.

This printmaker signs her work, deliberately, with the unusual Lisbet Schulz (not Lisbeth as inElisabeth !) and/or uses in various forms the monogram LS. I do not know of any exception.

Lately so-called "Nachlass" (= from the estate of, or possibly even posthumously printed) prints come to the market so maybe there's some-one out there owning the original blocks. Typically they sometimes seem to lack a (or 2) two color blocks, so these sheets may be saved proofs or failures. There's also evidence she changed some of the compositions.

These are the 17 examples that I've collected in my pictures archive from auction sites, catalogues and from readers who found me through earlier postings mentioning her. So for this special occasion and purpose only I share them in this posting. If you have other examples or better copies: please send and share !

Lisbet Schulz seems to have had a weak for floral designs and birds. There's only one "geographical" print: this Hamburg view on the "Altstadt" (totally destroyed by allied bombing).

In her floral prints her personal style is easily recognizable: from modest to somewhat extravagant. Recent discoveries show she was an exciting and very interesting printmaker, definitely not a good amateur. One of the top favorite prints in my personal collection of German woodblock prints by 19th century born German woman printmakers is her very large sunflowers print, bringing any wall in a joyful summer mood the way only sunflowers can do.

Whenever there's any information given by auctioneers, it is always "Dresden Künstlerin" Lisbet Schulz. If more details are added the seem mostly derived from the Thieme-Becker Lexicon biography of Dresden painter Elisabeth Sarah von Schulz (1884-1963)) and in some semi- official archives Lisbet Schulz, the printmaker, actually = Elisabeth Sarah von Schulz although I've never seen any real evidence she is or was. The painter, who was also graphically active, will appear in the next posting.

I have not been able to find any mentioning of any biographical facts concerning the printmaker Lisbet Schulz. Which is surprising and is probably what made "the choice" for the painter a "logical one". So by way of exception, I decided it is high time to call in the troops and share what I have found to this moment and before publishing "the book" in which she will appear with the biographies of over 200 printmaking sisters active in Germany 1900-1940.

From today I also make available my collection of male German printmakers for swapping or trading against desired prints by German women printmakers that may improve my personal collection. Feel free to ask.PS: I do not own all the prints shown, but would love to find and add others. (I have nrs. 5, 6, 7, 9, 14, 15 and 17)

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.All pictures are moms-clickable to embiggen.

Saturday, 5 November 2016

I share with you all I've been able to find trying to create something of this printmakers biography. All help is welcomed by those who might stumble over this humble posting.

Cläre Schmidt-Weissenberg

Painter and printmaker, she is known to me by two colour
woodblock prints both floral compositions, the autumn bouquet surfacing very recently in America. The signature in both prints probably reads M.C. Schmidt-Weissenberg (Marie Claire ?). She may have been the wife of Dr. Kurt
Schmidt (Colmnitz near Dresden 22-04-1866 - in or after 1932) who
lived/worked in 1932 at the exact same Dresden address where Cläre Schmidt-Weissenberg lived in 1930. But she could also have been his sister, or even his aunt, living at the same ad

Dr.
Curt Schmidt (Colmnitz near Dresden 22-04-1866 - in or after 1932) was a neurologist who ran a
private sanatorium at Josefstrasse 12b. He attended (high school) at Batten gymnasium 1881/82 earning the "Stipendium Hautmannianum" (I have no idea about this award). Bautzen is located some 25 km east of Dresden. (the School below)

He was the son of theologist Clemens Gottlob Schmidt (Kaditz near
Dresden 1827-1904 Dresden) and his wife Johanna N.N. His 6 uncles were all professors, physicians and theologists in Dresden en Leipzig.

-Dresden, Josefstrasse Nr.3. In 1904 (the year his father died) a villa in Jugendstil style was
build for Dr. Curt Schmidt by Dresden architect Heino Otto (1869 – probl. after 1929). It was the first house
designed with a garage for an automobile in Dresden (or Germany). Before
WWIRobert
Sterl (1867-1932), impressionist painter and Berlin Secessionist, professor in Dresden Art Academy lived and worked here
for several years. He worked as a war artist during WW1 and moved in 1919 to
nearby Naundorf.

-Dresden, Josefstraße Nr.12 (above, was build shortly before WW1 as a private sanatorium for neurologist
Dr.Curt Schmidt.He is mentioned
living/working there in 1932. From 1932 the sanatorium at nr. 12 was continued
by psychiatrist Dr. Heinrich Stoltenhof
(1898-1979) making it plausible Dr. Curt Schmidt either retired or died (aged
66) in 1932.

A Klara Schmidt was 1881-1887 “Leiter”
(director) of Dresden “Schul- und
Erziehungsanstalt für Töchter gebildeter Stände” (“English School”) at
Kurfürstenstrasse 11 (source: Stadtwiki Dresden). Above and Below. She could be related to Kurt Schmidt (his sister or his aunt ?). She was succeeded in 1887 by one Dr. Christiane Wiederhold.

It could very well be the -Weissenberg is not a maiden name but an
addition to the very common family name of Schmidt (compare artists Schmidt-Wolfartshausen,
Schmidt-Hild, Schmidt-Rotluf etc…).

Weissenberg is a small town 30 km. east of Dresden and 5 km east of Bautzen (where Curt Schmidt attended the Gymnasium).

All information and help is very much appreciated and welcomed.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Friday, 4 November 2016

Florence Lundborg

American (1871–1949)

Noted painter, illustrator and muralist Florence Lundborg was born in San Francisco, California in 1871. She studied with Arthur Mathews (1860-1945) at San Francisco School of Design and (like Mathews) went to Paris to study with James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). See the before post: Charlotte Popert in Rome, she also was a friend of Whistler.

Lundborg’s reputation as a muralist was confirmed when she won a bronze medal at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Shortly after, she moved to New York where she gained recognition as an illustrator of such books as, “The Rubaiyat”, “Yosemite Legends” and “Odes and Sonnets”.

She produced many posters, influenced by art nouveau and the arts & crafts movement of the early 1900s. Lundborg cut her own woodblocks for her posters and produced seven posters, as such, for “The Lark”, a literary and humor magazine to which she also contributed articles and cover illustrations. She received commissions to paint murals in private homes in Portland, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

And I suppose its is not unthinkable she was acquainted with the works of (Sir) Lawrence Adema-Tadema (1836-1912) who regularly visited Rome and Pompei. The spectacular use of perspective in Tadema's 1895 "Coign of Vantage" has similarities with Lundburgs illustration for "Yosemite legends" by Bertha Smith (1872-1922).

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.